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THE LEGEND OF THE ACTUAL WOLF: There are outlaws, and there are outlaws. Some practice the pose and cultivate the image, though seldom dirty their soft, bourgeois hands with anything actually outside the law. When they do, it is often despicable, irresponsible or just plain mundane. The Actual Wolf (aka Eric Pollard), however, is a real outlaw and has pled guilty to it. Between the bust and before the trial AW recorded a pair of EPs, each showing ‘another side of the Wolf’. It is one of the most obvious statements of existence: everything takes time, and the truly good, well crafted things in life take more than the rest.

"By about the one-minute mark of Al Church And State’s debut album—right when the group’s adenoidal harmonies kick in atop some arena-ready crunchy riffage—it’s pretty clear that Al Church is one big Weezer fan (so much so, he apparently used to front a tribute band to the group). Thankfully, Church’s Rivers Cuomo fixation extends only to the band’s formative adolescent-angst-anthem and sweater-destroying era—no Raditude-styled b.s. here—and doesn’t dominate the entire album.

Meg lives in the country and spends much of her time meditating in nature and playing in the garden, which is the main inspiration for her songs. She has been singing for most of her life and plays multiple instruments including guitar, piano, clarinet, mandolin, and harmonica.

Songstress Bethany Larson reaches to new lengths with the first full length release, When We Reach the City. This follow up album to Bethany Larson’s first EP release Sticks & Stones includes a brand new backing band, The Bee’s Knees. Bethany Larson & The Bee’s Knees bring us through the tides of a relationship, heartbreak then up to selffulfillment. “Don’t You Want to Know?” grooves with a great rhythm section featuring Brennan Goetzman on Bass and Sara Horishnyk on Drums. Brother Chris Larson backs up Bethany’s vocals with boldness and assurance.

Brian Just is the leader of a Minneapolis 5 piece Psych-influenced pop group. A sunny and elaborate affair, artfully incorporating '60s Folk Pop sounds reminiscent of Nilsson or Donovan. All cleanly laid over Just's day dreamy, lazy-afternoon folk-rock tunes. By turns low-key and boot-stompin', their versatile blend of folk are highlight by their signature harmonies.

Brianna Kocka, otherwise known as her stage name CAETANI, is a singer-songwriter from Minneapolis, Minnesota. With the help of bassist Matt Uttech, drummer Levi Stugelmeyer and guitar-god Steve Bosmans, CAETANI released her first record, The Black EP in April of 2012.

The three emcees in The Chalice are known quite well individually in the Twin Cities music community. Lizzo has a popular project called Lizzo and The Larva Ink, Sophia Eris has released a steady stream of material (and expects a new record shortly) and Claire De Lune has appeared as a guest vocalist on tracks by MaLLy, Guante and The Tribe & Big Cats!

World champion jug band. Born during a lightning storm in 2005, the Como Ave Jug Band is a gang of friends who more or less taught themselves how to play music, sometimes on instruments they made or found around the house. They guarantee you will have a good time if you come to their shows.

Martin Devaney has always embraced his local identity, literally dubbed the Mayor of St. Paul by friends and compatriots in the music scene. A classically trained musician with a jazz sax background, the accomplished singer-songwriter got his start playing with revered hip-hop ensemble Heiruspecs before embarking on a solo career. After self-releasing an EP in 2001, Martin followed with four full-length albums, each garnering more praise and attention from press and fans.

After a stint in New York City as drummer for Dan Melchior's Broke Revue, GD Mills (aka Sir Gregory Fuck Knight) packed up two drums, a cymbal, two sticks and a microphone and headed west to Minneapolis on an art school scholarship. In the aftermath of a violent 'destruction of school property' performance which ultimately lead to his expulsion, Mills formed Fuck Knights in 2007 on the very same day as the I-35W bridge collapse.

I have more original songs than the pope has Catholics. I'm doing my best to record as many of them as possible. Sometimes I have a band, sometimes I sing alone. I sing in living rooms, on the streets, in bars, and anywhere else they'll have me.

"If you don't wanna be with me, you don't gotta be with me," Twin Citian Dan Israel sings plaintively on his new release Dan, his 13th studio album of original material. It's the sound of someone finally letting go, after years of holding on to a hope that is quite simply never going to materialize. It's the sound of acceptance, and it's not all "hang-your-head" stuff either - there is liberation here, despite the tears.

Brianna Lane is a gifted singer/songwriter in true Americana form. She writes and performs on an acoustic guitar as well as a banjo, crafting songs that are clear-eyed and pure—with an integrity derived from her gritty, unflinching emotional honesty. Long time music-writer/author/rock-journalist Jim Walsh recently wrote that Brianna Lane is “…a star in the making. She’s poised, ambitious, a great writer, a soul singer of the first order, and an accomplished guitarist.” (Star Tribune)

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, singer-songwriter (and original member of the alt-bluegrass band The Pistol Whippin’ Party Penguins) Jake Manders, started writing songs and playing guitar when we was 14. To remember them all he recorded them on a handheld tape cassette player before finally transferring them to his laptop. Today Jake has a collection of more than 200 original songs... In 2009 he started recording for his first full-length album at Slow Studios with Ben Kyle of the alt-country band Romantica.

Jennifer has been singing all her life, but when the hardship of a failed marriage drove her to the Hexagon Bar every week for the Country Jam, she really found her niche. Learning a hundred classic country covers by Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, among others, Jennifer learned guitar and started sitting in with The Dieselfitters (Clay Williams, Richard Gunderson and Steve Everett), becoming comfortable on stage and eventually joining the band.

Like a tidal wave of sound Me and My Arrow's musical performances soak through every pore of the human body. The blend of strings, pianos, synths, guitars and urban clanging make for an orchestral sound that is larger than large. The pieces fit together in unique ways, coming together to create a new sonic palette the likes of which haven't been heard since the invention of the sonic boom. When the band comes together to vocalize either in harmony or unison one cannot do anything but feel. With every show the band gets better.

Maggie Morrison's pitch-perfect, brazenly unaffected singing instrument is perhaps (Lookbook's) most well-selected keepsake from the glory days of the discotheque. Live or on record, Morrison never slumps, never slides, never half-asses a single note. Like an Annie Lennox sans buzz cut, Morrison has a voice that manages to be forcefully intimate, as if emanating from some phantom space between your ears, and unseeably remote. Something in Morrison's live delivery may account for this—she has as little use for meaningless mannerisms as she does for tremolo.

The Parlour Suite is the surf-pop project, formed by Mpls husband-wife team, Joel and Inga Roberts. The band is supported on drums by Joshua Perez and on bass by Josiah Quick. Their most recent record, Everyone's Looking, was released on April 13, 2012. Recorded at Flowers Studio, by Peter Anderson, the release wields ethereal vocals, spanky Fender Strat, and analog organ tones. Reflective of cityscapes... and hot beaches, their stories are soaked in vintage-pop sensibility.

The Prairie Fire Lady Choir is a Twin Cities singing group that was formed in 2010, is sponsored by Springboard for the Arts, and is run by volunteer members of the choir. The chorus currently has more than 60 active members and a repertoire of over 40 songs, including pop and rock covers and original music.

The Roe Family Singers are a Good-Time, Old-Time Hillbilly band from the Mississippi-headwaters community of Kirkwood Hollow, MN. Led by wife & husband Kim Roe (Best Female Vocalist, City Pages/Village Voice) and Quillan Roe (Accident Clearinghouse), the band blends characteristic old-time sound with rock & roll urgency and influence.

My name is Rupert. I dance and hype bands that I love. One day, while I was getting ready for work, I heard some music that got me dancing right there in my bedroom. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t care. I felt happy. I just danced. And that changed my world. I followed that band to clubs, bars, beer gardens, ballrooms, high schools, colleges, churches, charity events-even mega malls, marathons, and outdoor festivals – Anywhere people could hear the music, feel the music, and find the happiness I felt the day I started dancing.

We Are The Willows is an orchestral indie rock band based out of South Minneapolis. The 6-piece ensemble features songwriter/frontman Peter Miller’s unique countertenor voice and guitar, supported by Jeremiah Satterthwaite (guitar/banjo), Leah Ottman (violin/voice/keys), Hilary James (cello/voice/keys), Travis Collins (bass), and Stephen Lindquist (drums/voice). We Are The Willows craft dynamic, intimate songs with instruments and voices combining to create energetic rhythms and intricate melodies. Their heartfelt arrangements evoke shared nostalgic feelings of love and loss.